Fluctuating lift on a circular cylinder: review and new measurements

Calculations of unsteady 2D flow around a square cylinder at incidence (α=0°−45°) are presented. The Reynolds numbers are low (Re=45–200) so that the flow is presumably laminar. A von Karman vortex sheet is predicted behind the cylinders with a periodicity which agrees well with experiments. An incompressible SIMPLEC code is used with a non-staggered grid arrangement. A third-order QUICK scheme is used for the convective terms. The time discretization is implicit and a second-order Crank–Nicolson scheme is employed. At the outlet of the computational domain a convective Sommerfeld boundary condition is compared with a traditional Neumann condition. The convective boundary condition is shown to be more effective in reducing the CPU time, reducing the upstream influence of the outlet and thus reducing the necessary downstream extent of the domain. A study of the effects of spatial resolution and blockage is also provided. The onset of vortex shedding is investigated by using the Stuart–Landau equation at various angles of incidence and for a solid blockage of 5%. A number of quantities such as Strouhal number and drag, lift and moment coefficients are calculated. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Low-Reynolds-number flow around a square cylinder at incidence: study of blockage, onset of vortex shedding and outlet boundary condition

Flow around rectangular cylinders: Pressure forces and wake frequencies

Accurate computations of the laminar flow past a square cylinder based on two different methods : lattice-Boltzmann and finite-volume

Direct numerical simulations of two-dimensional (2D) and 3-D unsteady flow around a square cylinder for moderate Reynolds numbers (Re=150–500) are performed, employing an implicit fractional step method finite-volume code with second-order accuracy in space and time. The simulations, which are carried out with a blockage ratio of 5.6%, indicate a transition from 2-D to 3-D shedding flow between Re=150 and Re=200. Both spanwise instability modes, A and B, are present in the wake transitional process, similar to the flow around a circular cylinder. However, seemingly in contrast to a circular cylinder, the transitional flow around a square cylinder exhibits a phenomenon of distinct low-frequency force pulsations (Re=200–300). For 3-D simulations, the Strouhal number and the mean drag coefficient are in general agreement with existing experiments. Between Re=300 and 500, an increase in the spanwise coupling of fluctuating forces is indicated. The influence of the spanwise aspect ratio using periodic boundary conditions, a finer grid, and a finer time step is also investigated.

B. Schönung

Papers

Numerical calculation of laminar vortex-shedding flow past cylinders